Leadership

Nicolas Desmarais

Chairman & Co-CEO

Nicolas founded AppDirect in 2009 with Daniel Saks, and serves as AppDirect's Chairman and Co-CEO. Nicolas is focused on the evolution of AppDirect's product, investor relations, and overseeing the implementation of new marketplaces for our channel partners. Before co-founding AppDirect, Nicolas worked at Bain & Company as a management consultant focused on media and business services. Nicolas holds a bachelor's degree with a double major in economics and political science from Amherst College. In his spare time, Nicolas enjoys outdoor activities and traveling to new countries.

Daniel Saks

President & Co-CEO

Daniel Saks is the Co-CEO of AppDirect, which he founded in 2009 with Nicolas Desmarais. Daniel plays a key role in the growth and development of AppDirect, from attracting a leading team, to nurturing relationships with customers and partners. Daniel’s presentation at the Under the Radar conference in the spring of 2011 resulted in AppDirect winning "Best in Show,” earning coverage in Wall Street Journal. Daniel received a BA in political science from McGill University then studied finance and accounting at Harvard. Prior to AppDirect, Daniel worked at Viant Capital, a boutique tech investment bank. In his free time, Daniel enjoys traveling, attending hockey games, and studying contemporary architecture and impressionist paintings.

Andy Sen

Chief Technology Officer

Andy joined Nicolas and Daniel as the technical co-founder of AppDirect in 2009, and currently leads the Engineering team. Andy is a long-time proponent of Agile software processes and rapid development cycles with over 15 years of eCommerce and web application development experience. Previously, Andy headed product management for Salesforce.com’s AppExchange marketplace. He has also been responsible forimplementing the world’s first and largest digital photo print-to-store service at Walmart.com. Andy graduated with a bachelor’s degree in computer science from the Georgia Institute of Technology and started his career as a consultant for the eBusiness group at IBM Global Services. In his free time, he enjoys traveling with his wife and rambunctious three-year-old.

Audrey Garfield

General Counsel

Audrey oversees all legal matters at AppDirect. Prior to joining the team, she served as outside counsel to AppDirect from her position as Of Counsel at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, a premier technology and intellectual property law firm. Audrey's two decades of Bay Area legal experience include four years as General Counsel at SideStep, Inc., two years as Associate General Counsel at LSI Logic, and the running of her own technology transactions law firm. Audrey received her law degree from Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco and served as a judicial clerk for the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in Honolulu. In her free time, Audrey enjoys trying to keep up with her two daughters and two energetic dogs, as well as enjoying a nice bourbon on her back patio to relax.

Richard Dufty

VP of Worldwide Sales and Strategic Partnerships

Richard Dufty joins AppDirect after spending eight years in various sales and leadership roles at Symantec, most recently as Senior Sales Director, Americas. In this position, he was responsible for all sales and channels for the Norton family of products, representing more than $1 billion in annual revenue with strategic partners such as Amazon, CenturyLink, and Comcast. Previously at Symantec, he was responsible for its new and emerging channels business and managed strategic partnerships with Facebook, AOL, Visa, and State Farm, among others. Prior to Symantec, Richard held senior sales roles at FrontRange Solutions, a leading SMB and mid-market CRM company. A native of Australia, he holds a bachelor's in Business from the University of Newcastle. Outside of work, Richard enjoys the ocean, grilling, and keeping up with his young daughter.

Paresh Gangodker

Vice President of Engineering

Paresh is responsible for software development, engineering, and platform at AppDirect. Before joining the team, Paresh was the VP of technology at LendingClub, the leading online p2p financial services company where he was instrumental in building its award winning platform from scratch. He also lead software development and oversaw massive growth, with more than $2B in loans processed during his six-year tenure. Prior to LendingClub, Paresh held various software engineering and consulting positions where he built large scale enterprise software applications for Fortune 500 companies. In his free time, he enjoys traveling and improving his rock climbing skills.

Emiliano Conde

President of jBilling

Founded in 2003 by Emiliano Conde, jBilling was acquired and became part of the AppDirect family of companies in 2012. Today, Emiliano continues to lead jBilling by providing long-term vision for the product, overseeing large implementations, and looking for new partnerships. In addition, Emiliano is an industry thought leader and speaks at high-profile technology conferences, such as Spring2GX and The Server Side. Before starting jBilling, Emiliano worked at HSBC as a Software Architect for its global operations. When not working, Emiliano is playing with his children or training for his next triathlon.

Tim Pavlis

Vice President of Corporate Development

Tim is responsible for identifying and executing corporate partnerships and acquisitions to supplement AppDirect's capabilities. In addition, his team leads a range of strategic projects to ensure the company scales effectively. Before joining AppDirect, Tim spent almost 10 years as a strategy consultant. Most recently he was a Principal at Bain & Company where he led strategy and operational effectiveness engagements in the technology and consumer/retail sectors. Tim holds a BA in Physics from Princeton University. In his free time he enjoys exploring the Bay Area with his wife and two young children, and finding at least some time to keep in touch with his love of music and art.

Stephen Banbury

Vice President of Worldwide Marketing

Banbury joins AppDirect with more than 20 years of marketing experience with both B2B and consumer companies. Most recently, he served as Vice President of Global Commercial Segment Marketing at Symantec, a role in which he was responsible for leading the company’s go-to-market strategy, product marketing, pricing, customer lifecycle, and integrated marketing across emerging channels and verticals such as telecom, managed service providers, and cloud service providers. Prior to Symantec, he served as senior director of worldwide partner marketing at McAfee. When not working, you can find Stephen enjoying cycling, eating Sushi, and sampling small batch gin from all over the world.

Mark Beebe

Vice President of Customer Operations

Mark comes to AppDirect with over 15 years of experience building and running global client services, strategic account management, support, and business operations for pioneering enterprise technology companies. Previously, Mark built and ran the Client Services organization for RichRelevance, a leading provider of digital marketing and analytics solutions. Previously, Mark served as GM and Head of Customer Success at Thomson Financial / Reuters, leading a new eCommerce platform in its corporate services division (acquired by NASDAQ). Mark is a Bay Area native, UC Berkeley Phi Beta Kappa graduate, and lives in San Francisco.